Civil Liberties Quotes - Page 6

• No one should be surprised that in the balance between national security and civil liberties, President [Donald] Trump, like candidate Trump wants to be more aggressive.

  Mark Halperin

  Balance, President, Liberty

  Source: www.msnbc.com

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• It is idle to talk of civil liberties to adults who were systematically taught in adolescence that they had none; and it is sheer hypocrisy to call such people freedom loving.

  Edgar Friedenberg

  People, Hypocrisy, Liberty

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• For the hundreds of thousands of Californians in gay and lesbian households who are managing their day-to-day lives, this decision affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves.

  Arnold Schwarzenegger

  Believe, Gay, Decision

  "Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage, overturned by judge" by Caroline Davies, www.theguardian.com. August 4, 2010.

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• Civil liberties, good. Lawyers, bad.

  Richard Belzer

  Liberty, Lawyer, Good Lawyer

  "Fictional character: John Munch". "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit/ Tangled", www.imdb.com. 2001.

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• Patriotism threatens free speech with death. It is infuriated by thoughtful hesitation, constructive criticism of our leaders and pleas for peace. It despises people of foreign birth. It has specifically blamed homosexuals, feminists and the American Civil Liberties Union. In other words, the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder. Whom are we calling terrorists here?

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Thoughtful, People, Feminist

  "And our flag was still there" by Barbara Kingsolver, www.sfgate.com. September 25, 2001.

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• People at civil-liberties organizations say it's a sea change, and that it's very clear judges have begun to question more critically assertions made by the executive. Even though it seems so obvious now, it is extraordinary in the context of the last decade, because courts had simply said they were not the best branch to adjudicate these claims - which is completely wrong, because they are the only nonpolitical branch. They are the branch that is specifically charged with deciding issues that cannot be impartially decided by politicians.

  Edward Snowden

  Sea, Organization, Issues

  Source: www.thenation.com

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• I think Mrs Thatcher did more damage to democracy, equality, internationalism, civil liberties, freedom in this country than any other Prime Minister this century. When the euphoria surrounding her departure subsides you will find that in a year or two's time there will not be a Tory who admits ever supporting her. People in the street will say, thank God she's gone

  Tony Benn

  Country, Thinking, Years

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• The issue of religious liberty is absolutely critical. America was founded on three different types of liberty: political liberty, economic liberty, and religious and civil liberty. It's remarkable that, one-by-one, these strands of liberty are coming under fierce attack from the Left. And that's particularly ironic because "liberal" derives from a word which means "liberty," the free man as opposed to the slave. This liberalism which we're saddled with today isn't a real liberalism at all, but a gangster style of politics masquerading as liberalism.

  Dinesh D'Souza

  Religious, Real, Mean

  Source: pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.

  William Godwin

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  William Godwin (1796). “Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on Morals and Happiness”, p.261

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• The civil liberty of every mode of worship, and full power given to all of openly and publicly manifesting their opinions and their ideas conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people... The Roman Pontiff cannot and ought not to reconcile himself or agree with, progress, liberalism and modern civilization.

  Pope Pius IX

  Civilization, Ideas, People

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• It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Ideas, Liberty

  Ludwig von Mises (2013). “The Theory of Money and Credit”, p.414, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Technology provides us means outside of governments to begin enforcing our rights, enforcing protection of civil liberties, regardless of law, through the implementation of systems and standards.

  Edward Snowden

  Mean, Technology, Rights

  Source: www.nesta.org.uk

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• I read these polls because civil-liberties organizations tell me I need to be aware of public opinion.

  Edward Snowden

  Organization, Liberty, Public Opinion

  Source: www.thenation.com

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• The Republic guarantees religious and civil liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens, and declares its resolve to pursue the happiness and prosperity of the whole nation and of all its parts, cherishing all the children of the nation equally.

  Patrick Pearse

  Religious, Children, Opportunity

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• The basic principles of democracy should be observed whatever the country - principles such as civil liberties, a free market, a free press, the priority of the individual over mythical state interests, a state which serves the interests of ordinary people and defends their rights and interests. This is all easy to say but hard to make reality.

  Vladimir Putin

  Country, Reality, Rights

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• Zealous groups threaten to infringe civil liberties when they seek government support to impose their own religious views on nonadherents. This has taken many forms, including attempts to introduce organized prayer in public schools, to outlaw birth control and abortion, and to use public tax revenues to finance religious schools.

  Norman Dorsen

  Religious, Prayer, Taken

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• The seemingly omnipresent storm clouds hanging over the Constitution often make it hard to find a silver lining. Every day, the front page of The Drudge Report is littered with stories of government assaults on our civil liberties - from local government officials all the way up to the Oval Office.

  Bob Barr

  Clouds, Government, Office

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• All of us in this country give lip service to the ideals set forth in the Bill of Rights and emphasized by every additional amendment, and yet when war is stirring in the world, many of us are ready to curtail our civil liberties. We do not stop to think that curtailing these liberties may in the end bring us a greater danger than the danger we are trying to avert.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Country, War, Thinking

  Cosmopolitan, Feb. 1940

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• That's when civil liberty suffers - when we think special times justify the diminution of civil liberties. And I'm not going to accept that.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Thinking, Suffering, Special

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• For me, it was definitely an education in being grateful. And appreciating the civil liberties we have today, the natural liberties we have at home.

  Aldis Hodge

  Grateful, Home, Appreciate

  Source: www.rogerebert.com

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• When I think of civil liberties I think of the founding principles of the country. The freedoms that are in the First Amendment. But also the fundamental right to privacy.

  Tim Cook

  Country, Thinking, Liberty

  Interview with Nancy Gibbs and Lev Grossman, time.com. March 10, 2016.

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• What we face is a scared populace, and because it's scared, it's willing to put up with what I think are inevitably more moves toward the constriction of civil liberties, mobility within the country, the ability to travel overseas, all of those things we have long taken for granted.

  Michael Scheuer

  Country, Moving, Taken

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Those who are troubled by our existing programs are not interested in a repeat of 9/11, and those who defend these programs are not dismissive of civil liberties. The challenge is getting the details right, and that's not simple.

  Barack Obama

  Simple, Nsa, Challenges

  "President Obama's speech on NSA surveillance reforms - full text". www.theguardian.com. January 17, 2014.

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• The guarantees of civil liberty are but guarantees of freedom of the human mind and spirit and of reasonable freedom and opportunity to express them...The very essence of the liberty which they guarantee is the freedom of the individual from compulsion as to what he shall think and what he shall say...

  Harlan F. Stone

  Opportunity, Thinking, Essence

  Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586, (604), 1940.

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• The Point, not unlike the Communist Chinese, the ACLU abhors individual religious freedom, and it supports only those civil liberties that fit its narrow political agenda.

  Mark Hyman, M.D.

  Religious, Support, Political

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